As recently reported from the 2021 #EdelmanTrustBarometer – the healthcare sector emerged as the second most trusted sector, globally.
Coupled with this – results show the most urgent foundational issue that needs fixing worldwide is the #healthcare system.
That places our industry in a highly unique, potentially fragile but also extremely important position. As healthcare communicators – the question we’ve all been asking ourselves is – what the hell are we going to do about it?
The pandemic has certainly catapulted healthcare to the forefront of everyone’s minds with the spotlight firmly on us – and with the rapid vaccine turnaround and current roll-out across the globe – is it time for a pat on the back?
Maybe not quite yet. Results published by data and analytics company Global Data, suggest that the next “hurdle” for the health sector and in particular the pharmaceutical industry is environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues.
- 43% of respondents in the Global Data survey noted that environmental questions were the most important to address – with climate change at the heart of that.
- 31% of respondents voted on social issues such as pricing, market access, and the development of drugs to treat rare diseases.
- 26% of respondents named governance issues as the most important – with issues ranging from compliance to quality, transparency, and a need to move to more patient-centric models.
So, while trust in the health sector is at a peak, we must begin to publicly address our stance on various ESG issues. There is much more work still to be done – but for now it’s in our interest to capitalise on a keen public and patient community that we uniquely serve in order to continue creating and innovating a bright future for healthcare.